


What Dogs See

by fishfingersandjellybabies



Category: Batman (Comics), Superman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24116623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishfingersandjellybabies/pseuds/fishfingersandjellybabies
Summary: Dogs see more than we think they do.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 192





	What Dogs See

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for @mayleebaby28! Thank you for being such a supportive, unconditional and kind human being! I hope everything is going well for you and yours and know you are so loved and appreciated, especially by those furbabies. Also sorry if this is jumbly and not good, ugh! You deserve better D:

From the second he saw him, Titus loved him.

The man had talked to him on their way to the house. _Warned_ him.

“He’s a little… _prickly_.” The man said with a chuckle. “An attitude that…I still don’t know how it fits in his little body.” He sighed. “But…he’s good, deep down. I know he is.” Then almost bitterly. “Dick _tells_ me he is. I wish…” Now a sigh. “Why can’t I see what Dick has?”

But when he saw the boy, in a big dark, cold place, scowling and alone, wearing silly clothes, he knew.

This was _his_ boy.

His to love, his to protect. His _forever_.

The boy – Damian – scoffed when the man presented him. Said something about being indifferent, barely looked at him.

But then Titus followed the boy up to his bedroom. Watched as he prepared for sleep and laid down. Without any command, or the boy even looking at him, Titus walked silently over to the bed, and laid his head on the mattress.

Damian was facing away from him, but Titus waited. Only huffed a breath once.

_I know what you’re doing. I’ll wait as long as I have to._

But eventually Damian rolled towards him, and let those silent tears Titus already sensed drop freely. Titus licked at his face, licked those tears away, and just rested his head on Damian’s when the boy hugged his neck tightly.

Yes. This boy was his.

~~

Krypto met Jon when he was born. He was in the room. He helped Kal-El tend to his wife, tend to his baby.

And when it all settled, when Lois was asleep, and the baby was clean, Krypto just couldn’t stop staring.

This child was _beautiful_.

A perfect mixture of his parents, of a human and a Kryptonian. Of two worlds, two universes.

The baby squealed in amusement as he tugged absently at Krypto’s ear, and Krypto felt like it was the most important moment in the history of every universe ever created.

He would protect this child. This miracle. But not for Kal-El, not even for the memory of Krypton.

For himself.

Kal-El muttered apologies as he removed the newborn’s fingers from Krypto’s ear, and he almost whined at the loss. Instead, he trailed after the father, watched as he put the baby in a crib, and then curled around its base. Even when Kal-El called to him a while later for some food, Krypto ignored him.

His watch started now.

~~

Damian was his life, to the point he didn’t care to learn about any of the other humans around. He recognized them of course, but beyond that could not care less.

So it was frustrating, when sometimes Damian went places that he couldn’t go. He’d pat Titus’s head, sneak a kiss when the one he called Father, or Batman, wasn’t looking then chase after the man like a shadow.

It was even more frustrating when Damian would return covered in blood or bruises, or unconscious and being carried by that man.

Titus hated it, hated the man for it, actually. Growled at him when he returned with Damian in this state. At least until he realized it wasn’t the man causing his Damian pain, and that he was just upset as Titus was about the predicament.

He also learned over time that his boy only seemed to come home injured when he put on the heavy, bright fabric. So, one day, when the man and Damian were resting, Titus went through those lockers, sniffed out his boy’s uniform, and ripped it to shreds in his teeth.

Damian wasn’t happy with him when he discovered what Titus had done. But Titus noticed a smirk of satisfaction on both the Batman’s face, and the old man with the mustache.

These terrible moments had a small upside, though. When Damian was injured, the mustached man always demanded he rested for a long time. Tucked him into bed and forced him to stay there. During these long times, Titus lounged next to his boy, head on his leg and Damian’s fingers scratching at his ears.

Quiet and safe and with his boy. Sometimes the men joined them, sometimes not. Sometimes Damian used Titus as a pillow, and sometimes Titus would curl around him like a barrier between him in the world.

He just wished these times came when his boy wasn’t hurting, too.

~~

He’d seen the universe. He knew the galaxies – many of them – and all the beautiful, wild secrets they held.

But nothing was as magical, or as breathtaking, as Jon discovering something new.

The way his face lit up the first time he saw a butterfly. His laugh the first time he jumped in a puddle. His gasp the first time he saw blue and yellow paints mix to create green.

It was the most amazing sight, every time. No matter how many times it happened over the years.

And when Jon discovered his powers, his heritage – Krypto was sure that there were literal stars in that boy’s eyes. He hooted and hollered, jumped into the sky and did a lap around the barn’s roof.

But when Jon swooped back down, tried to take Krypto on this first flight, Krypto took the chance to give Jon another first.

Before Jon could grab him, Krypto jumped into the air himself, swirling and spinning playfully away. He watched with a grin of his own as Jon’s violet eyes widened, and slowly, a gap-tooth smile spread across his cheeks.

_“My dog can fly!”_

Jon immediately flew after him, and they began a skyward game of tag. Jon laughed the whole time, and it was absolute music to Krypto’s ears.

To think – Kal-El was once the last of Krypton. The last hope of an entire race. An entire planet. An entire universe, light-years away.

And now, here’s Jon too.

Learning and growing and the best of them all, here was Jon too.

~~

His boy was strong. Cunning. Genius. A warrior.

But that was not Titus’s favorite part of Damian. His favorite part of his boy was how kind he was. How thoughtful. How he looked at the world around him like everything was new, smiled when he found something beautiful. How he tried to recreate it in his drawings and in his music.

His least favorite part, though, was how much his boy hated himself. And he knew that. He knew that from the day he met him. So he always stayed close. Gave Damian all the kisses, love and protection he could, every time he saw him. Every time he could.

But it wasn’t enough, and sometimes that hurt. He could see it, when Damian separated himself from his family when they were all together. How he blamed himself for things that were not his fault. But worst of all, how he didn’t feel worth anything, or deserve anything.

Like the nights he came back in that colorful costume alone, limping and bleeding. How Titus would try to lick his wounds and Damian would shove him away. How the old mustache man would offer the same, and Damian would snap sharp words at him instead. All but crawl to his bedroom and close the door even to Titus, and allow himself to suffer in silence. Suffer alone.

Or the times Titus would see the man yelling at him. Scolding him. And maybe sometimes it was deserved. Titus would see the mustached old man nodding when it was. But other times it wasn’t, and the mustached old man would furrow his brows and hold his hand over his mouth.

But even if it wasn’t deserved, Damian would not fight back. Not like he was capable of. He might have a little attitude here and there, but generally allow the hateful words to wash over him. Allowed himself to _believe_ them.

The moments with the one frequently called _Tim_ were bad. They would yell at each other, and insult with a purpose. Sometimes it would come to blows, and Titus would do all he could to separate them. Pull Damian back by his clothes. Growl at Tim until the other backed away with his hands raised in surrender.

And then when everything settled down, Damian would retreat. To a corner or the cave, to his bedroom, sometimes down a wandering path around the manor. And he’d repeat what Tim said to him. Repeat it and lament about how correct his brother was in his awful assessment.

It broke Titus’s heart. If only Damian could see how wonderful he was. How lovely. He deserved nothing but kindness, and Titus still did not understand why he did not get it from everyone around him. Why he did not see how much he deserved it.

But his boy could not understand his barks or whines. Just whispered “It’s okay, boy. Everything’s okay,” even when it so clearly absolutely wasn’t. So Titus did the only thing he could. Followed Damian when he tried to disappear, and stayed at his side when no one else would.

Maybe that was why Titus knew how kind this child was, because Damian only seemed to allow himself to be when no one else was around. When no one could see it. Maybe that’s why he always snuck off to be by himself. It was the only time he thought he could _be_ himself.

 _You are not alone. You can be yourself._ Titus would say loudly in his head, hoping against hope that maybe somehow his boy could hear him, or sense his words.

_You are not alone, and you are_ **_loved_ ** _._

~~

Krypto would do anything for Jon. _Anything_.

He’d destroy worlds for him. He’d change the climate. He’d tear another being limb from limb if they so much as looked at him wrong.

But he realized, over the years, that there was one thing he couldn’t fix. One thing he couldn’t do.

Jon was lonely. Krypto couldn’t fix that.

Jon was a good kid – a nice kid. _Too_ nice, some said. _Too_ naive. And instead of those traits flocking the people to him like, in Krypto’s opinion, it should – it brought out the bullies instead. Got him teased and mocked, and shoved into lockers.

And Jon tried to handle it on his own, he did. He’d take a deep breath, fix his glasses and smile. That’d just get him teased more.

On most days Jon could shrug it off. But not all. There were some days he’d come home and go straight to his room and cry. Other days he wouldn’t make it into the house at all. He’d hit their long driveway, or just pass the barn. Krypto would bark a hello, and Jon would hide his face in Krypto’s fur and collapse into tears.

He never believed the hateful words. Of course not, Clark and Lois raised him to be smarter than that. But he had no one else to lift him up. No one else to hold him in these darker moments. And this wasn’t something he could talk to his father about. His father was _Superman_ \- what kind of loser would that make him look like?

So he suffered alone, sometimes in silence.

And oh, Krypto tried. Would like Jon’s face raw if he could.

_Even if you have no one else, you have me. You will_ **_always_ ** _have me._

Jon never heard him, of course. For all the brilliance of his powers, animal translation was not one of them.

So Krypto did was he could – which here, was not much. No amount of laser vision or super strength would do anyone any good. So he’d whine a little, in solidarity with his cub, and laid with him until the tears dried, or his boy was able to smile again. Let himself be a pillow, a teddy bear, or just a plain shoulder to cry on if he needed to be.

 _You will always have me,_ he’d always try. Maybe one day Jon would hear him. Maybe one day Jon would know.

 _Always_.

~~

They were meeting someone new today, and Titus was shocked when the man said that Damian could bring him along. Damian seemed to be too, and the smile remained on his face until they jumped into the car and took off.

The drive was long, and took them out into the countryside somewhere. Titus didn’t mind. He spent the whole time sitting with Damian in the front seat, making him laugh and getting his ears scratched by Damian and the man both.

It was nice.

They arrived at what looked like a farmhouse, and immediately, Titus smelled something interesting. He hopped out of the car and immediately went on alert, wrapping around Damian’s legs. Damian just snorted, and pet his head again.

Suddenly, the door to the farmhouse slammed open, and a large man appeared. He greeted them as he walked down the steps, followed by a woman and child, and then another dog.

Krypto locked eyes with Titus immediately, and a silent truce was formed. Don’t threaten my family and I won’t threaten yours.

Titus remained wrapped around Damian, even as Krypto did the same for Jon. Titus hadn’t paid that boy any mind, not until the woman pulled him forward and introduced him to Damian.

His first thought was: _This boy is so sad._

Krypto watched Damian with the same intensity, and took in his posture, his crossed arms, his gaze off to the side of the conversation at hand.

His first thought was: _This boy doesn’t like himself._

After the introductions, the adults moved towards the house, leaving the two children alone. So Krypto and Titus stayed with them too.

The boys stood staring at each other, but the dogs approached, sniffing.

“Why does your boy not like himself?” Krypto asked immediately.

“He does not believe he is good enough, that what at, I’m not sure. And he has no one in his life to tell him differently. Though I suppose they don’t realize they need to.” Titus explained. “Why is your boy so sad?”

“He does not have many friends, probably because he has to keep many secrets from the children around him. He struggles to cope with the loneliness sometimes.” Krypto glanced up to Damian and Jon, when Jon sounded like he raised his voice. “…They do not appear to like each other.”

Titus looked back, gave a small scolding yip towards Damian. Damian didn’t seem to hear him. “They don’t.” He looked back to Krypto. “But you know?”

“Hm?”

He looked back at the boys. “I have a good feeling.”

“Funnily enough, so do I.” Krypto agreed. “I just…get the sense this may be the best thing to ever happen to either of them.”

“Perhaps,” Titus thought out loud. “Perhaps with each other, maybe they won’t be so sad and lonely anymore.”

“We can only hope.” Krypto nodded. “Our boys deserve better than that.”

“That they do.” Titus hummed. Jon and Damian appeared to be mid-argument, so Titus barked loudly, making them both jump.

They went quiet as they looked towards their dogs. Damian narrowed his eyes in warning to Titus, but then glanced at Krypto. “…Your dog is beautiful. What breed is he?”

“Uh…a mutt I think.” Jon mumbled sheepishly. “Do you know yours?”

“Le Grand Danois.” Damian said proudly. Jon just stared. “…A Great Dane.”

“Cool.” Jon smiled. “…Can I pet him?”

“I suppose.” Damian sighed. “Only if I’m allowed to pet yours.”

“Sure! Krypto loves belly rubs.” Jon exclaimed. “Don’t you, boy?”

Krypto barked and flopped over. Damian laughed softly as he rubbed his hand over his ribs. Titus graciously accepted Jon’s chin scratches.

As the boys pet the other’s dog, their conversation picked back up. Not into argument this time, but rather a simple conversation about dog toys.

Jon rambled slightly, seemingly thrilled to actually have someone to talk to. Damian smiled as he spoke too, not trying to hide his true, gentler nature.

The dogs looked at each other and grinned.

They finally found exactly what – and who – their boys needed.


End file.
